Hello, I am wanting to wrap my personal vehicle (2016 ram silver ram limited) and the main color I am wanting is matte black. I do want "ghost graphics" (hope thats what its called) flames, skulls, etc etc but very subtle. Would this be printed on the matte black or would you lay the matte black and then go over it with the graphics separate, it will be a fair portion of the vehicle so wasn't sure and then laminate? Sorry if this is a dumb question.
-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Car Wrapping Question
- Thread starter morty87
- Start date
How subtle do you want it? If you put matte black on matte black.. you wont notice it until you're right up close. Same if you print it.
You could print a rich black with your subtle graphics a duller black, overlaminate it with matte overlam... then apply it.
I would use Matte black, print the pieces you want with a lighter black, overlam/cut them out.. then apply them wherever you wanted, it'd give it a cleaner look.
Or... I would use plain matte black for the body, then something like https://vvividshop.ca/products/2017-vvivid-matte-metallic-black-ghost for the images. It'd give it a subtle / nice reflectiveish look, but that'd be up to personal preference.
Is this your first time wrapping a vehicle? If so.. just know Matte is one of the harder vinyls to install properly. If you heat it too much, it'll gloss/burn. 2016 Ram should be pretty easy, but go easy on the heat!
You could print a rich black with your subtle graphics a duller black, overlaminate it with matte overlam... then apply it.
I would use Matte black, print the pieces you want with a lighter black, overlam/cut them out.. then apply them wherever you wanted, it'd give it a cleaner look.
Or... I would use plain matte black for the body, then something like https://vvividshop.ca/products/2017-vvivid-matte-metallic-black-ghost for the images. It'd give it a subtle / nice reflectiveish look, but that'd be up to personal preference.
Is this your first time wrapping a vehicle? If so.. just know Matte is one of the harder vinyls to install properly. If you heat it too much, it'll gloss/burn. 2016 Ram should be pretty easy, but go easy on the heat!
So if your going to print onto black you need have a printer that prints white. If you don't have that ability than you print it on white and apply a matte overlam this will most likely be the best option.
You could wrap in matte black and than apply printed/cut stuff over the top but I'm no sure how long that would last and you would still need to overlam matte and the matte lam and matte material probably won't match. Not to mention that matching the color could be problematic.
You could wrap in matte black and than print on clear material, overlam with matte, but you would run into a simualr issues.
Yo could create you flames and skulls, cut them out, apply them onto your vehicle, than wrap of the top of them to create an embossed look.
Have you ever tried this? I was daydreaming one day and thought about how cool it'd be to design something this way. Could.do 1-2 layers of thick stuff and wrap over.it to give it a slight 3D look.
I was always worried about how the vinyl would stick though.. mainly concerned it would lift a little on the edges and cause a little pocket of air, kind of like how when you overlam UV prints with film.
I've always been meaning to test it, but never got around to it. I do a lot of police cars / advertisements, but nothing fancy like this... So maybe it's common practice and I'm just overthinking it. Maybe next weekend I'll wrap a door with some undergraphics and see how it looks, I think the effect would be cool and fit OPs subtle look perfectly.
I have actually. The biggest think to remember is to go around the edge of the first layer with some heat. If you don't that edge where there's a little bit of tenting will fail. A co-worker did one with a base layer of carbon fiber and than matte black on top. He used a heat gun and rolly pro to really get the detail and it was unique.
I did one on a snowmachine once as well. It turned into a bit of a time suck but it was for one of our sponsored riders so it was more of a can we do it and how would it look type of thing.
We just did 1 layer of some scrap 1080 film and it was more than thick enough to get the desired effect.
Nice, I'll definately give it a try then. I think it'd give it a much nicer, custom look than graphics on-top.
We do a lot of graphics on-top... customers want their phone #s and other stuff on cut vinyl so they can change it out. Or like our shop vehicle it's matte black with white text / other matte graphics... We opted for matte black and cut graphics. It's stayed on for years, but it does collect dirt easier on the edges, it doesn't affect the wrap but it does look crappier.
Jester1167
Premium Subscriber
Wrappers do this all the time for custom looks or to include their logo in a subtle way. Avery's Wrap like a King winner had 10 layers to help create a 3D wood texture.
lol thats sick!!
Nice! The company I Work for doesn't get many full wraps. I don't think we've ever even had 1 full color change. We've done every part of a vehicle once... but not the whole thing. Usually it's advertisements, or people wanting certain parts pink, etc... So I don't have much experience with full wraps. I've been wrapping friends cars for next to nothing just for practice and to get used to it, but This is definitely something I want to do though, just need to find a way to incoroprate it into a friends wrap! and I imagine it'd make you stick out from all the other shops too.
Come to Vancouver an u can try it out on my truck
I live in langley, so you're actually not that far away 
[Edit] I have a huge hospital job I'm doing at SMH for the next 3 weeks. I'll be working 2PM-12 AM since they don't like people working in the morning. Ontop of a few other personal jobs I'm doing... so I'm a "little" busy. But if you need help in 3 weeks, I actually don't mind helping.
Like I said, we dont get much full car wraps, so I don't mind the practice. I haven't ruined a piece of vinyl yet... but I can't promise I wont mess one up! I've done probably 30 police cars, tons of other wraps...so it's not like I'm a "Rookie", I just dont have much experience with bumpers,and removing handles/other panels for the full color portion of wraps.
[Edit] I have a huge hospital job I'm doing at SMH for the next 3 weeks. I'll be working 2PM-12 AM since they don't like people working in the morning. Ontop of a few other personal jobs I'm doing... so I'm a "little" busy. But if you need help in 3 weeks, I actually don't mind helping.
Like I said, we dont get much full car wraps, so I don't mind the practice. I haven't ruined a piece of vinyl yet... but I can't promise I wont mess one up! I've done probably 30 police cars, tons of other wraps...so it's not like I'm a "Rookie", I just dont have much experience with bumpers,and removing handles/other panels for the full color portion of wraps.
Last edited:
I live in langley, so you're actually not that far away
[Edit] I have a huge hospital job I'm doing at SMH for the next 3 weeks. I'll be working 2PM-12 AM since they don't like people working in the morning. Ontop of a few other personal jobs I'm doing... so I'm a "little" busy. But if you need help in 3 weeks, I actually don't mind helping.
Like I said, we dont get much full car wraps, so I don't mind the practice. I haven't ruined a piece of vinyl yet... but I can't promise I wont mess one up! I've done probably 30 police cars, tons of other wraps...so it's not like I'm a "Rookie", I just dont have much experience with bumpers,and removing handles/other panels for the full color portion of wraps.
So removing most handles aren't that bad. On many vehicles there is a torque head set screw in the door. On some vehicles you need to watch out for the ones with electronic sensor in the handles. I find that it usually best to try to find a YouTube video first to see if it's even worth the effort.
Ok, I am brand new to this too so when i figure out a design I like I will drop u a dm an maybe we can figure it outI live in langley, so you're actually not that far away
[Edit] I have a huge hospital job I'm doing at SMH for the next 3 weeks. I'll be working 2PM-12 AM since they don't like people working in the morning. Ontop of a few other personal jobs I'm doing... so I'm a "little" busy. But if you need help in 3 weeks, I actually don't mind helping.
Like I said, we dont get much full car wraps, so I don't mind the practice. I haven't ruined a piece of vinyl yet... but I can't promise I wont mess one up! I've done probably 30 police cars, tons of other wraps...so it's not like I'm a "Rookie", I just dont have much experience with bumpers,and removing handles/other panels for the full color portion of wraps.
Judi
Worker Bee
We've been doing ghost graphics on our racecars (dirt late models) for decades using reflective vinyl. Extremely subtle, nearly unnoticeable in the daylight. However, they are anything but subtle at night when a light source hits them! Similar to this: https://blog.signwarehouse.com/ghost-reflective-vinyl-graphics/ but ours were layered over the top of the printed wrap, not directly on the body panels like the example.
papabud
Lone Wolf
i did the same thing on a black bus using black refective. it came out looking amazing.
also i didnt know anyone else from this area that came to signs101
Judi
Worker Bee
It is an amazing look!!! We also used a lot of prism/holographic films. Really makes a car stand out at night on a dark racetrack.
I noticed that you're also in Toledo a few weeks ago...Howdy, neighbor!